Quote:
Originally Posted by Scruffy
Hey,
I'm a novice at home recording/production who has been getting pretty into creating electronic music over the past year or so. I'd say by now I know my way around Ableton and am perfectly happy with all the hardware & software I have available to me but I find that my tracks lack the same quality of almost all other tunes I hear...amateur or otherwise.
The main problem is that my synths seem to sound too plain/artificial/rough. I've scoured the net for some sort of tutorial or tips and tricks resource which would point me in the right direction as to what audio effects to use to polish things up but most guides seem to be about what hardware to use or what each effect does rather than cite commonly used electronica production techniques.
Was just wondering if anyone knew of a site or book that would offer some basic pointers on what to experiment with? Or indeed if anyone could give me some tips on what works for them in their music, that would be excellent.
Optional hugs and kisses for whoever can offer any help!  |
Getting good at compression can help gel things together. If you're using a computer to mix and you're able to use plugins, i'd seriously recommend the universal audio UAD cards. Plugins like the 1176 and the fairchild can give electronic music some subtle distortion and help things sit well together... The roland space echo plugin is amazing. They aren't free though. But you gotta pay if you want decent quality stuff.
good quality free plugins to look at would be the ones from digitalfishphones.com, the blockfish might provide you with distortion that'll help your tracks gel.
Try firing things out through amps and micing them up. get some real natural ambience in there. Distort things, but a small amount. And don't be afraid to roll the top end off things. Make sure instruments aren't dominating the same range of frequencies.
If you're looking for books i'd recommend 'the mixing engineers handbook' by Bobby Oswinsky.
The best advice is probably just to keep experimenting till you find something that works for you.